Sweet Myths of a Different World
by Mon3lisa
Summary: Al made some cookies and Ed “accidentally” finds them. Elricest


Sweet Myths of a Different World

Summary: Al made some cookies and Ed "accidentally" finds them. [Elricest

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist (c) Hiromu Arakawa, Sweethearts (c) NECCO

Rate: PG

Warnings: Post-movie. Fluff. Italics and '…' abuse.

Author's comments: Yeah, I know, weird title. Figured for once it shouldn't be about a piece of dialogue one of the characters say...

This be the fluffy fic for Ophillia as bribery for writing an angst fic for her Christmas present, I hope you like it oo

I had a hard time writing this actually…I promised myself to not put a single drop of angst but it's hard to do cuz in normal life it's total angst when you find out your sibling's in love with you, right? It really was a challenge cuz I hate OOCs and I kept on trying to stay true to their personalities so I constantly kept on thinking, "in real life if this actually happened, he wouldn't say/act like that at all TT" and I kept on changing the script until FINALLY I got it right! Yes!

…I hope nn; Al was especially the hardest and I'm sorry to say that I probably made him far too boyish for it to be him .. I was just tired of seeing girly!Al all the time in Elricest fanfics so I tried to make him more like any other frustrated twenty-year-old man. I don't think I succeeded but I don't want to change it so…sorry, just say that he snapped from the emotion-bottling… -lame excuse). But I feel towards the challenge like a good lesson-learning so all's well.

Just to let you know, I'm not good with dialogue. oo gotta practice more…oh well. anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Happy (early) Valentine's day

PS: I also took out details in events since this fic originally took me some 11 pages to write ; sorry for the too-quick flow

--

Today is an unusual day. The sun is illuminating the corridors, the light blue sky greeting the world in its open vastness, a bird chirping and the wind rustling.

He closes his eyes and intakes the breath of leaves and their sweet pure oxygen that they emit through their continual process of photosynthesis. He chuckles through his nose at his unnecessary scientific explanation for the crisp coolness that brushes his cheek. He lightly shakes his head and smiles once more up towards the sun.

The ex-alchemist bends his head lower to let the wind weave through his raised bangs; opening his eyes down to the streets below. Through the second floor, he can already see his fellow city people going through their business, not minding the golden eyes watching them as they cross one another without a second glance. An act, he thinks gratefully, showing how secure those citizens feel. No suspicions, no fear, no danger, and definitely no crazy people trying to overthrow the civil army they called the 'police'. All is calm and peaceful; America really is the land of hope.

He shuts the windows, shivering slightly as the air around him holds to a still and the change in room temperature drops like the newly-welcomed air sinking into the ground. He stretches a few before retrieving down the hallway, humming as he makes his way into the kitchen.

"Mornin' Al," he cheerfully greets, only to find that his younger brother is not in the kitchen. He looks over at the living room then back to the kitchen, shrugs, and begins making his coffee. Another unusual factor of the day, he thinks, Al's usually always up and early but not today. His smile slightly falls in disappointment, wanting to surprise his little brother especially since he woke up earlier than usual. He would have liked seeing Alphonse greet him in surprise and laughter at his sudden early wake, a single smile enough to illuminate his day even more. Hmm, oh well.

He reaches for the cabinet, pulling the hinges outwards and leaning his arm forward to grab the coffee beans. But his hands catch empty air, and he glances over at his groping outstretched hand. No coffee beans? Since when were the words "Al, you didn't buy coffee beans!" ever a spoken phrase?

He pushes the other contents of the cupboard aside, mumbling a few "huh"s and "what"s as he continued looking for his most-needed drink to arouse him. He begins using both arms, scrabbling around and grunting in frustration as he pushes herbs, spices, sweeteners, and other table products out of his way.

"Dammit!" He growls. "Where's the coffee, I need…" He pulls himself closer to the cabinet and stretches his hand farther and deeper. "The damn…"

Box.

"-?"

Yes, definitely a box all right. Plastic too, judging from its hollow replies to the clinks of the automail. He leads his flesh hand inside, feeling the box and deciding that it definitely wasn't the coffee beans. But what's it doing there?

Curiosity brings the box out of the wooden shelves and he sets it on the table. He takes a second to observe the small opaque box, and tries prying it open. But it's hard, and since his left hand is cold from the morning air the numbness, trying to open it just gives painful stings on his fingertips. He gives up, sucking on said fingers and coming up with conclusions. _The box must've been closed up and hidden for maybe a day or two…Seeing that I can't even open it due to the small vacuum accumulated and that it's been put away to a rather non-discoverable place…what's Al up to?_

He peers a little closer, trying to see through the opaque plastic and trying to understand the light brown contents inside. He sniffs at the edges and suddenly, it all clicks.

_Cookies!!_

Since when was Al capable of making such sweet gifts from heaven?? Surely he was hiding these for himself, not wanting Edward to find them and eat them all! Really, Edward thinks, that's exactly what he'd do right this moment were the cookies open and inclined to his greedy fingers. He feels excited towards the baked sugar chunks despite his age, his salivary glands agreeing with him and his stomach rumbling for emphasis.

"But I can't open it!" he wails out loud, kicking the kitchen island. "There's no more coffee and it's cold. …_And_ I woke up early _and_ I'm still a little sleepy despite the great sun and all." He rubs his hand against his thigh, hoping his pajama pants will at least do some good for his numb hands even if it gives him goosebumps up and down his legs. "Where's Al…" he mutters, glancing at the clock. "Did he go out? A little walk before class? If he comes back now I'd have missed my chance and he'll hide those cookies somewhere else." He sighs, reaching up now to scratch his head. He parts his lips to say something else when an abrupt presence disturbs his morning complaints and is surprised to see that it's Alphonse, eyes wide and cheeks flushed.

"You…oh, _no_!" He groans, seeing the cookie box on the table. "You found them!"

"Good morning to you too," Edward responds, smirking with raised eyebrows at his brother's dismay. As Alphonse nears the table and observing the edges of the lid to see if it was opened, Edward laughs a little and tries to cover himself up. "Man, I was just about to sneak a few and hide a couple in my room. Guess you found me, Al." He winks, inching his way towards the younger Elric, crossing his fingers behind his back (an Earthling symbol he learned that somehow brings hope despite the user's words. A strange but useful gesture if it actually did work). He turns his mischievous gaze into a sly look, ready to greet his little brother with an inescapable pair of begging puppy eyes to win his discovered treasure. He did find it after all, and what was that saying they have here?

Oh yeah, Edward grins inside. "Finder's keepers."

Alphonse's slightly pink cheeks glow slightly darker at Edward's statement. Though in embarrassment or anger Edward wasn't too sure; but when Alphonse's brows furrows in as he opens his mouth to reply, he decides it's the latter. "I hid these for a reason, you know, I wish you didn't find these! I'll have to throw them out now…"

He definitely wasn't expecting that.

"_What!?_" He straightens his posture and his devious looks are gone, replaced with eyes just as wide as Alphonse's were when he burst into the kitchen only a few minutes ago. "Why?? Just because I found them? It's okay, Al, I won't eat everything! I swear- why do you have to throw them out? I'll eat them, anytime!"

"NO!!" Alphonse yells, snatching the box from the wooden surface, not caring for the shaken contents. "No, no. No, no, um, th-they're stale. Can't eat them, not well done." He attempts to pry the box open and dump the cookies in the trash, when Edward swoops in and neatly steals the box freely from his hands.

Alphonse sharply turns his head towards his elder sibling. "Brother, _please_. C'mon, stop screwing around!" He lungs towards Edward who switches his hands and holds the box far from his little brother, observing attentively the younger one's determination to get rid of those cookies. "_Brother!_"

"What's so bad about them?" He inquires, holding the younger one back with his metal arm. "Seriously, you find me out then suddenly you're saying they're not good. What, if I breathe on it will it go bad? I didn't even _look_ inside!" He notes Al's eyes growing wider at the last word, keeping his arm firm as he attempts another time to retrieve the box.

"Bro, please, this isn't…it's not that. Just give them back, please…"

Edward decides that there is without a doubt something to do with himself. Even if the cookies were stale, he'd eat them anyway, he reminds himself, and Alphonse knows that. If they were bad, he'd have thrown it away a long time ago. But he didn't, so it's not about the cookies that are bad; it's about _Ed_.

Logical and obvious. It's about Ed.

He looks back up at the box in his hand and decides to open it and see Alphonse's reaction. He makes a quick look at where he stands, the number of steps and the amount of force it'd take to make five steps to the living room; all in a quick two seconds. He brings the box to his chest and quickly rotates his body, temporarily leaving an opening for Alphonse.

The younger Elric sees the opening and lungs forward, before meeting thin air as Edward ducks from under his arm and jumps upwards, away from his younger brother. He skirts around the table, running towards the living room. The other Elric is caught off guard, realizing .35 seconds late that Edward had two seconds for himself in that living room. Too late to turn around and take five steps! It's too far, and his brother had gone far ahead of him. He can't catch him!

"No!! Don't look!!!" he cries, taking a big leap backwards.

"…Al, what's all this?"

It takes nothing to keep Alphonse from squeezing his eyes in defeat. Too late, too late…

The box is open, lying flat against his flesh hand having used the automail to open the lid without a problem. The escaping aroma meets his nose, the scent of pounded sugar, eggs, flour, and (unfortunately) milk turned crisp by gas heat…mixed with the smell of strawberry icing. It's that icing that holds Edward's gaze on the cookies. Written in small letters, written so neatly and with careful delicateness were the words "Love you" written across one of the cookies.

He gingerly picks it up, only to find another identical underneath it. He sees the other cookies and they too, have little love messages written on them. 'My Love', 'Beautiful', 'My Sweet', 'Angel'…

"Al?"

His younger brother flinches, not meeting his eyes. Neither of them move as Ed continue looking through the box, finding repetitive phrases on different cookies. 'Lover', 'Beautiful', 'Be mine', 'Kisses', 'The Best'…

"Th-they're from someone." Alphonse finally stammers, taking uneasy steps forward. "I-I'm not sure from who but…um…that's…" His voice dwindles away, stopping before Ed with burning cheeks not knowing what to do. Edward, not paying attention to him, still reading the messages.

'Lover mine', 'Simply yours', 'Love', 'The Best'…

"Brother?"

The Best…

"Al," he finally replies, looking into Al's nervous eyes. "Who are they for?"

His younger brother opens his mouth, lips quivering to think up of a good reply, before deciding with, "f-for me. It came through the mail and-"

"Don't lie to me, Al. I know they're yours. You're the only one who writes the line across the 't' jutting out only at the very tip of the vertical line."

Alphonse stares at him, not believing that he found him out so easily. His already crimson cheeks spreads the heat towards his ears and he feels his entire face burning with embarrassment. He knows his handwriting? But how? Did he write his name in there by accident? How did he…?

"And I know nobody else who uses 'you're the best' except for you. But seeing that you only barely knew Noa for a couple of weeks before we headed out to the United States and we've only been here for two years, with you in that University for a month I doubt you'd have met enough people to consider a special someone as 'the best'." He takes a step forward and adds another statement, his words mumbled and almost inaudible. "That is, of course, if you're talking about me but that's impo-"

"All right!" Alphonse shouts, throwing his arms up in defeat. "I give up. You're too smart for me. All right, I'll tell you everything." He lets his arms drop and he sighs, looking at the ground. "It's true that they're mine."

To this, Edward stands up straight again and settles his other foot on the other side of his left metal calf. "Thought so," he grins triumphantly, snapping the lid onto the box once more. "You could have told me, you know…" Alphonse looks up. "That's what I'm here for. To help you, even if I don't really have experience on that part."

The brunette blinks a few times and, confused, asks, "What are you talking about?"

"W-well, you know. I never had a g-girlfriend or dealt with crushes before so…w-well, you could have still told me that you had a…uh, the 'hots' for someone." He quickly ends his phrase.

"The _what_??" Alphonse asks, appalled.

"Sorry, sorry, that's what they say here…"

"Brother, honestly, you're getting too used to this world's funny culture."

"Well, aren't you? This looks vaguely familiar to those Sweethearts candies…and there is that tradition here to bake cookies for your crush for this 'Valentine's day' coming soon…"

"Ah, w-well…" Alphonse mumbles, digging his hands into his pockets to find something to fiddle with. "They're not really for, um, a 'crush' see…it's…they're…" He shifts his feet. "They're for you, Ed…"

For a while the words don't sink in into Edward's mind correctly according to him and he laughs a little, shaking away what for a second he thought they really meant. "Right, Al, like I ever am 'the best' or 'beautiful' or whatev-"

"But they're true! Everything's true!" Al cuts in, his short hair and antenna bobbing in emphasis. "Even though sometimes you make me want to rip something apart since you're such a damn _stubborn_ stone-head who can't shut up about his height-"

"_Hey_, I stopped ranting about that a long time ago!"

"Liar, you always told me that you wanted to get away from Germany since everybody was so 'freaking tall' so I figured that we went to the big city so that we're constantly surrounded by tall buildings and no one will care for your height!"

"That's not it!! That is NOT it!" Edward cries, waving his arm about. "I came here because there were benefits. Safety, money, a proper education for you, no annoying propaganda wherever we go…I came here for you and you only."

His heart leaps at the last sentence, and the brunette looks away, going back to fumbling with lint.

"Anyway…" Edward says, pulling his bangs behind his ear before the strands fall back to place once more. Alphonse's lips twitch as he watches, knowing the gesture to be a sign of anxiety and of awkwardness.

He purses his lips and takes a deep breath. There's no other way. "I just…I just wanted you to know, you know…that um…" His palms sweat in his pockets as he fingers a forgotten paperclip in his pocket. "I'm kinda…uh, well, I never told you but just…try to understand, Brother, it's that…um, well…"

Edward looks back on their conversation, picking the hints and odd pieces, putting them together…

"I-I know you'd figure it out sooner or later so I'm telling you now but I…I'm…"

"Gay?" Edward finishes. No answer. "With me?"

"…yeah."

The younger brother looks away, fist clenching, heart hammering, brow sweating. The other boy doesn't react at first and simply stares beyond the other boy's chest. He silently opens the box again, the aroma greeting him in a warm sweet breath one more time. He reaches in and takes a bite off of the first cookie he finds.

The crunching sound brings the brunette to look up, watching his brother in mild confusion eating the cookie. Edward swallows, tasting the roof of his mouth with a small and wet tapping sound. "Mm, it's good…"

"Y-You don't mind?" Alphonse asks incredulously.

"Doesn't make the cookies taste bad," was his reply.

For a few seconds Alphonse could only stare as he tried to understand Edward's reply before turning towards anger and grabbing his elder brother by the collars and forcing Edward's expressionless eyes to his. "I'm _gay_, Brother, with _you_ and this is what you tell me? That the cookies are good?? Something's wrong here, Brother, something's _wrong_!" He violently swipes the box out of Edward's hand, the sounds of a few dozen cookies falling to the ground in a shower of small thuds echoing throughout the otherwise silent room. "Aren't you going to hit me? Aren't you going to yell at me, step away from me, walk away from me and never come back?? Brother, I'm _in love_ with you! Doesn't that tell you _anything_?! I'm disgusting! Wrong! Effed up in the head!"

Edward turns his head towards the fallen cookies and sadly sighs, maintaining calm. "Look at what you've done, perfectly well done cookies all gone to waste. Better let me go, Al, before that five-second rule catches up and makes the cookies inedible…'parently there's so much grime in this world, anything left on the floor for more than five seconds becomes too dirty to eat…"

Alphonse grits his teeth. "I can't believe this…" He lets Edward's collars go, letting him walk past him and scoop up the cookies. "You honestly…" He wipes the tears that accumulated in his eyes on his sleeve, sniffing a little as he turns his body subconsciously towards where his brother is crouching on the floor.

Edward begins collecting the cookies, hearing his younger brother sniff and let out a raspy breath coated in anguish. He picks up the box, dropping the baked goods from his palm into it, collecting a few more before getting up.

"You know what, Al, I'll screw the five second rule and eat them anyway. Human bodies have immune systems for this reason after all…" Edward gets up and strolls over to him, breaking off half a cookie from his lips and munching on it as Alphonse lets his hands down from his face and meets his golden eyes with his reluctant bronze ones.

"Want some?" Edward asks.

The brunette closes his eyes again, placing an open palm on his heated brow opening his mouth to say something back when suddenly, something sweet and sugary collides with his tongue and he nearly falls back in surprise. He snaps his eyes wide open, the tears blurring his vision.

When Alphonse realizes in the same level of astonishment as Edward for his sudden rash move, his facial muscles stretch wide at what he's doing.

He's _kissing_ him.

He softly gasps, the held-back tears finally released and rolling down his rose cheeks. They fall between their lips, stimulating Ed's sensory system. He pulls away an inch to lick the younger Elric's soft salty lips.

"Mm," he whispers with a lazy grin, "but you taste better."

Alphonse collapses in his arms.

--

"So you were going to just leave the cookies on the front step and leave me to figure out who it came from?" Edward laughs. "Seeing that I've been a secret stalker of yours since you came back, I'd notice the 't's and the messages and know that something was up." Edward winks. "Since I'm smart like that."

"Let me add to the list of the things you are, Brother." The younger Elric sighs, shifting his head closer to his shoulder. "_Arrogant_. Or overly proud."

"And 'beautiful'?" The blonde says, looking down at him teasingly. "…'The Best'?"

"Shut up." The younger Elric punches him lightly in the chest, his 'Lover' laughing sweetly and shifting his arms around him. He sighs embarrassedly but still holds his ear over his shoulder. Edward strokes his hair softly, acknowledging and loving the silent moment together. Al closes his eyes, as Edward starts talking again.

"But Al, if I hadn't figured it out, how was I supposed to know it was from you? You didn't leave a message or anything on the box…"

"You weren't supposed to. You were just supposed to know that someone loved you and cared for you so much that they spent effort baking cookies while you were obliviously working at the governor's house…"

"But…what good is there in that? I'd just be trying to solve the mystery since I never really had this before…"

"Exactly," the brunette replies, shifting his knees together and looking up at his golden eyes. "I figured that it's nice to know that someone likes you…even if you didn't know who it was."

"Al…"

"And you'd turn to me, trusting me to be the last person on the planet who'd do such a thing and we'd have something to talk about. Since we don't see each other as much as before now with your job and my studies and all…I thought this was the perfect way to sort of confess and to bring us closer…"

Edward smiles and burrows his lips into Alphonse's short hair. "Well, it did just that, Alphonse, and I love you for that."

The younger one breathes in softly and replies in a low murmur, "I love you too."

Edward kisses his head, encircling his other arm around Al's torso and holding him there. He looks at his watch, noting the time. "What are you going to do now? You have afternoon class in a few minutes, right?"

Alphonse doesn't reply at first, choosing instead to silently take another cookie from the box and biting into it. Ed watches him chew slowly on the cookie. He smiles up at him then and kisses him, having him forget about those stupid classes and only on spending time with him. Here. Now. Alone with those sweet sugary kisses…


End file.
